Strategic Direction Blog

As a sales professional, it’s natural that closing the deal is foremost in their mind. However, our experience shows that focusing on winning during an executive engagement actually undercuts your prospects for success.

Winning a strategic sale requires many interactions. Concentrating on success in advance distracts them from what they want — performance in the present.

When they focus on closing the deal, their natural inclination is to talk. They want to make sure the customer executive appreciates their solution’s full range of value. But instead, the customer may sense their anxiety, especially if the conversation doesn’t go as expected. They may wonder if they really understand what they need.

Learn new skills

Listening starts long before the first meeting.

On the sales call, be sure to:

• Listen to their answers. Follow this maxim:

“We were born with two ears and one mouth, so we can listen twice as much as we speak.” This advice dates back nearly 2000 years to the ancient Greek philosopher, Epictetus. It’s simple advice but hard to follow.

• Practice active listening. Active listening means you respond to the speaker. If you don’t have this skill, practice it every day.

Experts say it takes about 21 days of disciplined practice to learn a new skill. Phrase responses to a prospect’s statements in the form of another question. This helps clarify your understanding, solicit more information, and advance the purchase decision.

Pursue excellence over perfection

When we focus solely on closing the deal, we’re drawn into hopeless perfectionism. A good example of the perfectionist at work is Howard Hughes, the aviation pioneer who fell short of his potential.

His biographers wrote: “Hughes never learned how to convert his knowledge to practical application. Instead he sought a perfection that assured failure.”

By seeking excellence rather than perfection, you can accept and learn from mistakes. And you have less cause to feel discouraged and disappointed. This change in attitude and practice will result in a higher percentage of closed deals.

Follow these 4 tips to perform in the moment

1. Early in the sales cycle, validate the customer’s initiatives. Show that you both understand these drivers and see how they fit into the customer’s strategic plan.
2. Mid-cycle, secure agreement on the alignment between your customer’s business and your solutions. Extend this focus beyond the deal, to the formation of a partnership between your organizations.
3. As the deal nears closing, quantify its advantages. Underscore the return on investment, and relate it to your customer’s investment criteria.
4. Throughout your meetings, emphasize process and performance goals. When you come to a meeting, know the steps it must achieve to lead to the next stage. Make that the business of the meeting.

The best time to ask a customer for a “referral” is shortly after the purchase or installation. Why? According to our recent survey, this is typically when product satisfaction is at its highest. Make sure if you do get a referral you ask the customer for a warm hand-off. Ask them to make a phone call for you in order to set the stage for your presentation however if that’s not possible a well written email will suffice. If your customer can’t think of a referral at that moment in time, don’t give up. Keep pressing - sooner or later you’ll get a name.

Remember though, not all customers will provide good referrals - try to avoid:

1. Customers who have been difficult through the sales and negotiating process. Remember, like attracts like.

2. Customers who received a deeper than normal discount or special pricing.

3. Customers who have less than a stellar reputation in the professional community.

And if you get a good referral from a customer, thank them by doing something nice for them then ask for another name!

By the way - every company should have a formal referral program in place. Be creative and make it part of your culture.

Top Sales Professionals never rely on marketing for lead generation. Over the years I have seen and done some creative things to generate quality leads including sending out “birth announcements” to local prospects announcing the launch (birth) of a new product. This not only got a chuckle or two but it moved clients to pick up the phone and call. The best leads (and by best I mean most qualified) come from existing clients/customers. There are some great advantages to referral selling:

1. The leads are/should be pre-qualified

2. Pricing is known and fixed

3. Potentially shorter sales cycle

4. If a demonstration is typical this may get you around it citing the customer as proof of the product’s performance.

The key to successful selling using referrals comes from proper planning..

Coming Soon - Part 2